Razorback Waxler returns for 2 games Howard notebook

Lindsay Waxler has taken many trips to play soccer. But when her University of Arkansas team boards the plane today in Fayetteville, she knows this one will be special.

She's coming home.

The Wilde Lake high school graduate and her Arkansas teammates play at 7 p.m. tomorrow at UMBC and again at 7 p.m. Sunday at Navy.

"There's going to be a lot of people there that haven't seen me play in college," said Waxler, a senior majoring in therapeutic recreation. "It will be great to look up in the stands and see them all. It's going to be a fun atmosphere. I'm very excited. We can't get out of Fayetteville quick enough."

Waxler also will see familiar faces on the field. UMBC has six players from Howard County, including senior Renny Trellis, a teammate and friend of Waxler's at Wilde Lake. Another friend and former Wildecats teammate is Kristen Riismandel, a junior on Navy's team.

"I get to battle for 90 minutes against them and then give them a hug," Waxler said. "It's all about having a good time, playing hard, and when it's over, it's over."

Waxler, an All-Maryland player at Wilde Lake, is having fun playing soccer again after a junior season that she described as "very unproductive."

She injured a knee in the first game and could never get untracked.

"I tried to play through it," said Waxler, who scored twice last year. "It was a horrible year."

She has been healthy since surgery in February. And she's looking forward to showing family and friends how she and the Lady Razorbacks (4-5) can play.

"It's about pride," said Waxler, a forward/midfielder who has two assists this season. "I want to show people what I've been doing for the past four years and to show what this team is made of."

Riismandel, also an All-Maryland performer at Wilde Lake, hasn't stayed in close contact with Waxler but said she is "interested to see how she is playing. I know she was injured last year."

Waxler last saw Riismandel and Trellis during the Christmas holiday. Waxler spends her summers in Fayetteville, although she worked in an area soccer camp this July.

Waxler plans to visit her parents' Columbia home on Saturday, and Lindsay said she plans to join her mother, Louise, that day in Quantico, Va., for the annual Washington Area Girls Soccer tournament.

Riismandel, who has three goals and four assists for Navy (9-2), also is planning to attend the WAGS tournament in Quantico, where the older teams will be playing. Riismandel, who is majoring in mathematics, attended prep school for a year before going to Annapolis.

Howard JV player is OK

For the second time in two years, a state helicopter landed in Glenelg's stadium field to take away an injured soccer player.

Last season, it was Glenelg senior David Harris, who was knocked unconscious and ended up missing a few weeks of action.

In Tuesday's JV girls game, Howard freshman Allison Peltier was hit in the head by the ball and knocked to the ground. She lay motionless but never lost consciousness. Paramedics decided to bTC call the State Police Medevac helicopter.

Peltier's mother, Pat, an emergency-room nurse at Johns Hopkins who was at the game, had Allison taken to the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Trauma Center. She was released a couple hours later wearing a neck brace.

"Basically, it was whiplash," said Ms. Peltier.

A Howard teammate was attempting a clearing shot and the ball hit Peltier in the head.

"It was like a rocket," Glenelg coach Mike Williams said of the shot, "and she happened to be in the way."

"It snapped her head back and then her head hit the ground," said Howard coach Dave Guetler.

The injury happened shortly before halftime, and both coaches decided to end the game at that time.